I’m wondering if anyone uses aqara products for home security, if so, how did you set it up? E.g. which sensors, when do they trigger an action and when not.
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Hi and welcome to the forum. The moderator, gafich10, has gone to great lengths to create an excellent tutorial comprising several lessons on how to set up a home security system. Take a look:
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As well as the tutorial pointed to, you can also use 3rd party products. e.g. I already had Eve Door and Window sensors, running on Matter over Thread, and Aqara supports that.
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Yes. I’m currently using Aqara as a fairly complete DIY home security system, and it has actually become much more capable than just using a few door sensors with a hub siren.
My setup is built around Aqara Home/HomeGuardian with multiple hubs, cameras, a video doorbell, door/window sensors, a presence sensor, and other smart-home devices. I also integrate the compatible devices with Apple Home.
I use the three main security modes differently:
Home Mode: This is for when I’m home but still want certain parts of the house protected. I mainly use perimeter-type events here rather than interior activity, so normal movement inside the house doesn’t constantly trigger the alarm.
Away Mode: This is the most comprehensive mode. Door/window opening events, selected contact sensors, presence detection, camera person detection, and the doorbell’s forced-removal/tamper alarm can all be used as triggers. Since nobody should normally be inside when Away Mode is armed, interior detection becomes much more useful here.
Night Mode: I use this differently from Away Mode because I’m obviously still inside the house. I protect doors/windows and other perimeter points while being more selective with interior presence/camera triggers so normal nighttime movement doesn’t create false alarms.
One of the things I really like is that Aqara lets you configure the trigger events individually for each security mode instead of treating the whole house as simply “armed” or “disarmed.”
My alarm response is also more than just a notification. I currently have multiple Aqara devices configured as alarm devices, with the alarm volume at 100% and the duration set to continuous. I can also link smart lighting to an alarm event—for example, turning selected lights on, setting them to 100% brightness and changing their color when the alarm is triggered.
I also have four security cameras/video devices tied into the security system: cameras covering the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, plus the patio video doorbell. Alarm video recording is enabled, so security events can have associated video instead of being only sensor notifications.
For alerts I use multiple layers: push notifications, email and SMS. In my current configuration, SMS acts as an additional escalation if an alarm remains active rather than being immediately cleared.
I also use automatic arming/disarming, including geofencing, and Aqara allows additional triggers such as schedules, accessories and supported recognition features. Entry and exit delays can also be configured separately for Home, Away and Night modes.
Another interesting feature is the ability to define a response for other devices during an emergency—for example, automatically switching off selected appliances—while keeping the security infrastructure itself running.
I currently have HomeGuardian Unlimited, so the camera side of the system is also a significant part of the setup. It gives me extended video/event history and additional AI features such as advanced filtering and face detection.
The biggest lesson from setting all of this up is not to enable every sensor for every mode.
A door/window sensor makes sense as a trigger when you’re home, away or sleeping, depending on where it is. An interior presence sensor or indoor camera detecting a person may make perfect sense in Away Mode, but the same trigger could become a false-alarm machine in Home or Night Mode.
So I think of the system in three layers:
Home = perimeter protection while I’m inside
Away = perimeter + interior protection
Night = strong perimeter protection while allowing normal movement inside
Aqara gives you enough flexibility to build something much closer to a traditional alarm system than I originally expected, especially once cameras, sensors, alarm devices, lighting responses, automatic arming and notifications are configured together.
It does take some planning, though. The important part is deciding what each sensor actually means in each security state instead of simply turning everything on.
If you’re interested, I can also share a more detailed breakdown of my setup—sensor by sensor and exactly which triggers I use for Home, Away and Night modes.
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Thanks for the extensive response! I’ll definitely look into this setup. Very inspiring
This is exactly the type of write up I have been looking for. I am tired of anytime someone says automation or anything, it’s always home assistant this, and home assistant that. I have an aquara doorbell I took out, and a home assistant lock that I want to use but I’ve been holding back.
I spent a significant amount of time transitioning from Simplisafe to Aqara devices using Home Assistant and it has been well worth the effort. The Aqara devices are greatly superior to the Simplisafe hardware.
If you are running HA, I’m happy to provide detailed guidance for using the Alarmo service. I posted a short summary topic a few months back.